The No. 3 overall draft pick in Kamilla Cardoso knew she reached a level of success and made her dreams come true when she heard her name called in the 2024 WNBA Draft.

“It was a very amazing feeling. It’s a memory that is never going to leave my mind, because I’ve been working so hard for this moment,” Cardoso said on Media Day on May 8. “I’ve been dreaming about this since I was 13 years old and just knowing that my dream was able to come true is amazing.”

Cardoso suffered a shoulder injury during the preseason but made her return and WNBA debut on June 1 against the Indiana Fever.

Cardoso came to the United States from Brazil when she was just 14 years old with little-to-no English under her belt, knowing just ‘yes, no, hi and bye,’ but that didn’t stop her from chasing her goal of making the WNBA.

“When I left Brazil, I knew what I wanted to achieve in my life. I knew I wanted to give my family a better life. I knew I wanted to play basketball at a better level,” Cardoso said. “I was really homesick. I lost like 20 pounds but then everything got better. I went to Syracuse and was there for a year and then that’s when I realized I wanted to play for coach Staley. I wanted to play for a program that had a history of winning.”

To hear more from Kamilla Cardoso, watch the full, exclusive interview above.